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District Attorney Daniel Donovan at a press announcement on Dec. 12, 2013 announcing the establishment of a Family Justice Center on Staten Island that will offer centralized services for domestic violence victims. (Photo courtesy/Richmond County District Attorney's Office.)

The reasons why domestic violence is not reported more often are varied. They range from fear of reprisal from the abuser or the abuser's friends and family to misgivings about the follow-through of police and a lack of trust in the criminal justice system.

"I'm not sure if there's one main overriding reason [why victims don't report domestic abuse]," said Donovan, who has made combating the crime and advocating for domestic violence victims a focus of his administration. "I think each individual abuse victim may have [his or] her own reason."

"What makes domestic violence really complex is that you're dealing with someone that you did or currently have an intimate relationship with," Ms. Pierre-Louis said.

For that reason, victims may prefer to try and handle the situation privately in the hope that it will improve with time.

Victims want the violence to stop, Ms. Pierre-Louis explained, but they may wish to avoid interventions that involve having their intimate partner arrested because that could jeopardize his reputation and livelihood, and hurt the family financially.

The various entanglements that partners share -- like children, pets and property -- and the daunting prospect of navigating government systems to obtain a divorce, gain custody of children and divvy up shared property can also make victims feel helpless to escape abuse.

FINANCIAL DEPENDENCE; 'CONTROL'

Then there's the complication that some victims may not have the financial means to support themselves or their children if they leave their partner.

The Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence ran a print campaign in 2006 to target domestic violence. The day the posters went up they received 1,000 calls from victims.

In one recent domestic abuse case on Staten Island, a woman said her alleged abuser did not permit her to get a job, return to school or better herself in any way.

"He would come up with any excuse to hold me back from being a better me," she said.

It's common for abusers to assert power and control over their victims through physical, emotional and economic abuse.

"The whole thing about domestic violence is control," said Donovan, noting that abusers are often great manipulators. "Different abusers control women differently."

They may try to isolate the victim from friends and family, guilt-trip them with threats of suicide or even blame them for bringing on the abuse.

"Some women have their self-esteem beaten down so badly by the abuser they start to believe what the guy tells them," Donovan said. "They start to believe that they're the cause of this, or what a bad person they are for not forgiving him."

FEAR OF REVENGE

A victim may also fear that an abuser will exact physical retaliation if they report the abuser to police and attempt to leave the relationship. Research shows that victims face an increased risk of domestic violence homicide after leaving their abusive partner.

Legal revenge, as a method of victim intimidation, also isn't out of the question, according to Ms. Pierre-Louis.

"We've often seen that abusers can be very sophisticated in using false reports to the state registry," she explained. "The abuser could be in jail and making false reports that the victim is engaging in child abuse or filing a retaliatory complaint against the victim and getting them subjected to the court system."

And if it's not the abuser who retaliates, it could be the abuser's family or friends on their behalf.

"Even when an abuser is incarcerated and kept in jail during pending court proceedings, it doesn't mean the abuser's family may not actually retaliate violently," Ms. Pierre-Louis said. "It's not just the abuser themselves, there's a whole network of people around the abuser that may put the victim in harm's way."

IN THE IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY

Immigrants, both legal and undocumented, sometimes fail to report domestic abuse for fear of deportation (investigators won't ask victims about their immigration status, Ms. Pierre-Louis said) or just a general lack of confidence in law enforcement.

"Given their experiences back home with various government systems, they may carry those beliefs and be distrustful of engaging government," Ms. Pierre-Louis said.

Other immigrant victims may not realize that the kind of abuse they're taking from their partner is actionable due to cultural differences.

"They may think this kind of violence is part of marriage," Ms. Pierre-Louis said. "It occurs and you don't seek outside intervention for it. You deal with it internally."

CITY'S NEW INITIATIVES

For all of these reasons, the Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence is working in concert with the district attorney's office and other community organizations to step up domestic violence outreach.

"It's making sure we can get information to victims about what resources are out there for them," Ms. Pierre-Louis explained. "No one should think that it's OK to be living in a home with someone who is being violent towards them."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Our next article in a periodic series on domestic violence on Staten Island will focus on the city's domestic violence outreach efforts and services available to victims of abuse.